Demonstrations held outside Gap
offices following a series of tragedies in Bangladesh
It came
as no surprise to me, as I scanned the results of a recent NPR study, to learn that
just a 5% price increase was enough to deter two thirds of shoppers from
purchasing garments labeled as “ethically produced.” However the survey also
cited that in an experiment where the price of both garments was kept the same,
of costumers who recognized the label only 50% chose to purchase them versus
the unlabeled identical pair. This lead me to believe the middling resistance
against corporations using sweatshops, save for the weeks following a tragedy,
is because shoppers (we) lack an emotional response when given the option
between ethical and unethical clothing. We lack empathy.
Our favorite clothing companies,
are chiefly responsible for this. They have done a great job of dissociating
their brand with negative images of abuse and unhealthy conditions in their
factories across the world. Forfeiting vertical integration for reasonable deniability
these companies send manufacturing duties to nameless production companies to
further distance their involvement. A NYT
article published shortly after the Bangladesh factory collapse detailed
this relationship, “Production is farmed out to contractors and subcontractors with
revolving labor pools. Last year, Walmart claimed that it did not know that a
supplier had subcontracted orders to a Bangladeshi factory where more than 112
workers died in a fire.” Corporations use these "middle men" to evade the inevitable clean up.
Companies must be held responsible
for their actions. No other avenue of action will solve the global issue of
sprawling sweatshops and unethical treatment of workers. If our money
represents votes determining validity of a company and their product then aren’t
we also condoning unethical treatment of factory workers? The NPR study showed that the issue was not
dependent of money but also on awareness and perceived sense of agency. Steven
Greenhouse, a columnist with the New York Times wrote, “There have to
be signals to government and suppliers, especially when you have loss of life,
that positive steps have to be taken,” he said. “But you also have to have
companies saying, ‘Enough is enough. We want to see significant change or we
can’t source here.’ ”
In terms of solutions that we as high
schools and contributors to the global market can enact Richard Locke, deputy dean of
M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management says seeking to further our own knowledge,
“About how the things we buy everyday are made,” is the first step to making a
difference. The occurrences in Bangladesh have inspired me to continue the
strides we’ve made in class and extend our message to the community as a
personal initiative that I felt spoke to me.
